Friday, September 9, 2011

Grateful!

It's been a bit of a tough week for me. I have made myself work out every day Matt has been at work so if I work out today it will be 4 consecutive days. GO ME! Sorry, I'm a little excited that I've finally made myself do it. So back to the tough week. I have felt like everything is working against me in making these work outs happen. Tuesday Matt called twice in the middle of my workout. The second time he needed me to bring him things at work. Oh and I had kids climbing on me the whole time. I was over half way through so I decided I would finish and then pack up the kids and head over! He was slightly irritated, but when I explained he understood. I knew if I stopped in the middle I would never finish because Phillip needed a nap, Annaleigh needed food, and I needed to shower while Phillip was napping.

Anyway, I have decided I really need to work out while Phillip is napping so I can really focus on what I am doing. It has been hard making myself do it. I have a million things I need to do while Phillip is napping. I feel selfish taking that time to work out instead of doing housework or whatever. My big one yesterday was laundry. I have piles of clean laundry that just need to be put away. I usually put laundry away while Phillip is napping because he finds some sort of sick pleasure in destroying my neatly folded piles of laundry. So in order to avoid me fuming and double the effort in putting clothes away I just do it while he's in bed. I have tried waithing until he goes to bed at night, but I'm so drained I just don't want to do anything. While Phillip was napping yesterday I needed to workout, shower, eat, put away laundry, take care of Annaleigh...I'm sure there is more I could add to that list!

I was having a huge inner battle. I know if I find excuses even one day I will find excuses every day after. So I worked out. The living room was a disaster by the end of the day. The piles of clean laundry are still sitting there. I felt so...blah! So I had a nice chat with my wonderful husband. He made me feel so much better. His exact words, "I could care less if the laundry gets done." Haha, ok so I care if the laundry gets put away. I hate digging through baskets trying to find clothes for the kids. But I love him for this. He understands how hard it can be some days to take care of the kids and get things done. He understands working out is important to me right now, and how hard it is to find the motivation to build that habit. He just gets it!

So today I am grateful for our little family. I am grateful for our cute kids (even though Phillip has been waking me up before Matt is even awake). I am grateful for Matt, and his understanding nature. I am grateful I am able to do things that make him happy, and he can do the same. I am grateful that both of us understand stability takes a lot of hard work. We  know we can't expect to own a home, drive nice cars, have the best furnishings, and be up to date on technology without all the hard work first. I think having this knowledge allows us to be happy despite our circumstances. We have been down so many different paths since we have been married and yet we somehow make it work. It's all of this that helps me to know if we can just hold on to this perspective we can conquer anything that may come our way. And for this I am incredibly grateful!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Necessity Is The Mother of Invention!


Ok, so I didn't really invent anything, so maybe creation should be substituted for invention.
It has been one of those days. You know the ones where you run into a link with everything you try to do. I was attempting to put the finishing touches on the kitchen I cleaned up yesterday. Phillip was suddenly interested in the kitchen the moment I started sweeping. I finally got it swept. I went down to the basement to get the mop and found the box of mop pads open and dry.
I sent map a text that was a little ridiculous. It went something like this " YOU left the mop pads open now I can't mop the kitchen." Yeah, like I said ridiculous!
Anyway, so I relaxed and remembered seeing a crochet swiffer pad. So I went to
Ravelry, a website of knit/crochet patterns, did a quick search and an hour later had this...

Now we will always have a pad for our swiffer and we can save some money!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Happy Birthday to me! (well a few days ago)

I am usually fairly excited about my birthday. This year I was not so excited for it. I am now closer to 30 than I am 20. Ugh! I am typically not one to fret about  my age. It's inevitable, but this one hit me a little hard. The day itself was a good day. I still had to be a mommy, which honestly is really the best thing ever! Little miss decided to do this on my birthday!


She has been trying for so long, and finally got it! While the kids were napping I relaxed and played on my sewing machine. I made a keychain for myself. One that slips over my wrist so I don't lose my keys with my arms full of kiddos! It has come in handy. Matt made me dinner! It was so yummy and it was nice not having to worry about dinner.

The Friday before my birthday Matt and I decided to go here..


Yeah, check out that elevation. In order to get there we had to do this



And if you are looking at the map thinking it looks quite easy check out this picture I took standing at one of the switchbacks


Can I just say, I am SO out of shape! The first 1/4 wasn't bad at all. About halfway is when it started getting hard. After that we had to stop so often. I would go a little  way and beg Matt to stop. Ok so I didn't have to beg. There is no railing and the clifs are fairly steep. He was quite concerned if we didn't take it slowly I would get dizzy and fall off the edge, lol! There were times when I wanted to just go back down, but I really wanted to prove to myself I could do it. We kept passing people along the way who would give us encouragement telling us it was worth it. I can't say the caves were incredibily amazing for me. At least not amazing enough to say that hike was worth it. I can say, however, the feeling of accomplishment was worth it. The view from the top was quite amazing.




And it was great quality time with my wonderful husband. I love this man!